One of Us
by Chi-Chi's Poptart
Summary: How Sadness feels about being accepted. *Spoilers!*


**More Inside Out! I loved this movie too much!**

 **Edit: Holy shitake mushrooms! How did this get so many favs in two weeks?! You guys rock!**

Riley hugged her parents as tight as she could, her tears making their clothes damp. Though she missed her home, the woods, and her friends, he had her parents, and they finally understood how she felt.

Eventually, she fell asleep in their comforting arms.

Joy leaned gently against Sadness, admiring the work she had done to get Riley back home and safe. Sadness looked up with the shy little smile she seldom showed and her big hopeful blue eyes.

"I'm sorry, Sadness," Joy murmured.

Sadness stared at her with a confused look on her face. "For what?"

"For treating you like dirt, keeping you away from the console, not listening to your ideas, and..." Joy's voice warbled, "for abandoning you, back at the recall tube."

Sadness hugged Joy, surprising her. "It's okay. I thought I was useless, too."

Joy pushed away, feeling unworthy of her friend's forgiveness. "But that's just it! I acted like you were useless for so long, I convinced you that you were! And these guys, too!" she gestured to the other emotions who were still staring at Sadness with wonder and amazement.

Joy sighed and slumped to the ground. "If only I'd been too late to stop that core memory from reaching the island support system in the first place..." she said, gesturing to the shining sapphire orb Sadness still clutched in her hands.

"Then we'd still be fighting. I'm glad you tried to stop it!" Sadness told her. It was Joy's turn to be surprised. Sadness gave a little timid chuckle. "All that stuff that happened... it was crazy! But before it, I felt like I was just taking up space. Ever since I first manifested here, I felt that way. I thought that none of you would ever want to be my friends." The other emotions looked to the ground, ashamed. "But you showed me that even I can be useful every now and then, even if it's not a lot."

Joy stared her for a few seconds, her expression unreadable. Her bottom lip started quivering, and she hugged Sadness like a landline.

Sadness returned the gesture.

The other emotions gathered around.

"Are you guys okay after all that?" Fear asked. "You're not hurt, are you?"

Sadness shook her head, her sparkling locks reflecting the light. "Nope. Are you okay, Joy? It must've hurt when you fell into the memory dump." Sadness stopped,remembering that only Joy had come out of the dump. She knew what had happened to Bing-Bong. She had read in the manuals what happened to any forgotten creature left down there.

Sadness glanced at Joy, and saw tears welling up in her eyes. The other emotions saw them as well. Thankfully, Disgust could read the atmosphere.

"You guys are probably exhausted," Disgust said, looking them over. "We can handle Dream Duty. We'll hear in the morning."

They both nodded, and got to their feet.

Sadness, who was naturally slower than Joy, trailed behind a little. She felt a tap on her shoulder and turned around. The other three emotions looked at her with a mixture of relief and shame. Finally, Fear spoke up. "Um, what you did... It was pretty cool."

Sadness regarded them for a second. "Thanks."

Anger nodded. "You done good, kid."

"I guess we owe you an apology," Disgust told her. "I can fix your awful fashion sense." She gestured to Sadness's turtleneck and pants.

"That doesn't sound like an apology..." she mumbled, but smiled despite herself. Finally, they were beginning to accept her.

She was tackled from behind with an over enthusiastic hug. "I love you guys! Group hug!" Joy grabbed all of them and pulled them together.

Normally, Anger would protest, but seeing it was futile, allowed Joy to squeeze them.

Sadness grinned and stared at the swirled yellow-blue core memory in the island support system. If she ever felt unaccepted, she could look at it and know she was an irreplaceable part of Riley's family life.

Finally, Disgust squirmed to get out of Joy's grip, and she relented.

"Oh!" Joy exclaimed. "There's something I almost forgot!" She grabbed the core memory from Sadness. For a second, Sadness was terrified that she would attempt to get rid of it again. But Joy approached the Island Support and put it inside. A new island blossomed up from the energy stored inside it. It looked almost like a mixture of all the old islands, but it was tinged a light blue color, and the objects on it moved more slowly than before.

"Past Happiness Island," Sadness whispered.

"This way, she won't forget," Joy said. "Because... I-I can't let her forget anymore of her old friends."

Sadness waddled over to the console, and typed in a request to the workers. A yellow memory of a 3-year-old Riley appeared, giggling as she used cookie-cutters with Meg. She picked it up and carried it over to Joy. "I know she won't let that happen again."

Joy wiped a tear from the corner of her eye, and admired the memory, before gasping.

Sadness jumped. "W-what's wrong?"

"Sadness! It didn't turn blue!" Joy beamed.

"Really?" Sadness grabbed the memory back from her. Not a single speck of blue could be found. She trembled for a second, then smiled wider than ever."It isn't. Nothing's wrong anymore."

Joy grinned. "I guess all she needed was a little Sadness." She elbowed her, gently, of course.

Sadness was no longer alone. Instead she had finally contributed to Riley's life, and had four amazing new friends.

 **Ending was awful. Darn it.**

 **Another story is on the way, so stay tuned!**


End file.
